The market has definitely improved much since March, 09, but has it improved for the right reasons? Should investors still be bearish? In this article, I explore the biggest justifications held out by the “bears”.

“What’s with the insiders?”

Insiders are those people who have access to non-public information about a company – ie. Employees, senior management, executives. In recent months, insider selling has FAR outweighed insider buying by many multiples. With figures courtesy of TrimTabs (which tracks insider transactions), during August, insiders averaged $210 million worth of shares bought, while they sold $6.3 billion worth. That’s a whopping 30x sell-to-buy ratio! In the last week of August alone, there were $8 million worth of insider buys corresponding to $520 million of insider sales. That means a ratio of nearly 62x! If insiders are selling, and they know more than the market, then what does that show?

“Where is the volume?”

One of the …

There has not been much good news coming from Detroit or the nation’s auto industry over the past year. Is the industry finally out of the woods?

Whether the action can be accredited to the greatly debated Cash for Clunkers program or if it is merely the effect of natural economic forces, there is good news out of the auto industry these days… finally.

First, there is word from General Motors (NYSE:GRM) that it plans to expand production at three of its manufacturing facilities. For the nearly 2,400 workers that will be invited to work on the third-shift line, the news is the best they have heard in a while.

It is a similar story at cross-town rival, Ford (NYSE:F), except few American workers will be clocking in for the new shifts. The company is widely expected to announce its plans for a third major production facility in China later

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Hawaii: Pristine black sand beaches… surfing… spectacular volcanic eruptions… and miles of pineapple plantations. If you are like me, this is what comes to mind when you imagine Hawaii.

What may not come to mind, though, when you think of America’s 50th state are its energy resources – and specifically, the fact that it gets 77% of its power from oil-fired power plants. That’s a unique statistic within the United States. Coal-fired plants provide 14% of power, and the remaining 9% comes from renewable sources like wind and solar energy.

Suffice it to say, tourism is Hawaii’s largest industry, with agriculture playing a major role, too. And not unlike the rest of the country, the one thing needed to keep it all running smoothly is a reliable source of electricity.

Problem is, Hawaii is dependent on fossil fuels for more than 90% of its power – an issue that became shockingly clear when

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Plug-In Electric Vehicles: In Search of the Mass-Produced Hybrid

by David Fessler, Advisory Panelist

We found out that Tesla Motors joined the growing list of automakers receiving federal funds this week. It locked up $465 million to develop and produce battery-powered vehicles.

But as we know too well, large government checks are hardly ever the answer to our problems. And one of the biggest right now is that we’re seeing gas prices climb slowly higher.

While $147-a-barrel oil served as a wake-up call for the car-driving consumer, it was also the catalyst that shifted the plug-in electric vehicles industry into high gear (pun intended).

I’ve talked about Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) before, and I’ve heard a lot of reader comments on the hybrids on the market right now. So let’s take a look at some of the major car companies’ efforts so far, as well as what lies ahead for consumers

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Linear Technology (LLTC) is a leading OEM of analog and mixed signal semiconductors. March quarter revenue was in-line with consensus expectations, although the EPS exceeded. Forward guidance is for a 1% revenue increase in the next quarter.Flexible operating structureManagement showed great efficiency in steering the company through the last downturn. This was achieved as a result of the company's flexible operating structure. Even with revenue declining high double-digits, gross margins remained above the 70% range and operating margins were just short of 40%. The company was cash flow positive all throughout.Past performance has increased our confidence in management execution. We note that despite two quarters of back-to-back double-digit revenue declines, the gross margin dropped only slightly to around 75%, and operating margins dropped to the 45% range. Therefore, we expect continued adjustments to the operating structure that would enable it to cope ...

The markets ended down today, as the S&P 500 closed at 855.16.  The NASDAQ was down -0.33% closing at 1673.81, while the Dow Jones was down -0.10% finishing at 8016.95.  The price on the 10-year treasury fell with yields rising, closing at 3.011%.  Gold and oil both declined today, settling at $893.60 and $49.92 respectively. 

US Steel [X: 26.15, -1.56 (-5.63%)] announced earnings today, reporting a loss of $439 million, or $3.78 per share.  This was down from the period a year ago, when it reported earnings of $1.98 per share.  The stock lost almost 5% today as the steel company failed to beat analyst estimates of  a loss of $1.44 a share, as sales fell to $2.75 billion.  The Pittsburgh based steel company has been hurt in recent times as the companies that they supply have decreased the demand for steel due to the tougher economy.  US Steel has been especially

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Despite criticism from opposition politicians, Putin's anti-crisis plan has been lauded by the Duma.  Can the '1998 miracle' be matched by today's measures?  The Economic Development Ministry wants to postpone the increase in utility prices to spare industry higher costs.  The Ministry also predicts the unemployment rate to be between 10.4% and 10.7% this year.  The Education and Science Minister has warned that only 30% of economic school graduates will find a job in 2015, as the state prioritizes other sectors.  Risks of inflation reaching 13% in 2009 are minimal, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has reportedly stated.  Steel manufacturers await the result of negotiations with Chinese iron ore producers, predicting a price cut of between 30% and 40% from last year.  Severstal has said that overdue repayments from domestic car manufacturers are at a '...

The markets started the week down, with the Dow closing -3.27% lower.  The NASDAQ and the S&P 500 were both down on the day closing at 1501.80 and 787.53 respectively.  The 10-year price was up today with yields closing at 2.712%.  Both oil and gold contracts were down today with oil settling at $48.41 and gold at $917.70.

The markets were down today on news that the government had rejected GM’s [GM: 2.70, -0.92 (-25.41%)] and Chrysler’s restructuring plan.  Share prices fell over -25% as a result of the poor news.  Obama said in a press conference that the Treasury will provide working capital for the next 60 days as GM puts together a new restructuring plan.  The government also indicated that bankruptcy might be the best restructuring plan for these companies.  GM has fallen over -30% year to date and is well below their 52-week high of

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German consumer confidence declined for the first time in seven months as workers worried about keeping their jobs amid the worst recession since World War II. GfK AG’s confidence index for April, based on a survey of about 2,000 people, declined to 2.4, the Nuremberg-based market- research company said in a statement today. March’s result was revised down to 2.5 from 2.6. br /br /a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/ScuFpubSkBI/AAAAAAAANQs/5ib4oAFAOIY/s1600-h/german+consumer+confidence.png"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 199px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/ScuFpubSkBI/AAAAAAAANQs/5ib4oAFAOIY/s400/german+consumer+confidence.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317490736924626962" //abr /br /strongEconomic expectations: slight decline/strongbr /br /After an increase in February, economic expectations in March this year have decreased by 4.9 points, a drop that is almost on a par with the gains of the previous month. The indicator currently stands at -32.8 points.br /br /At present, consumers are still seeing little reason to abandon their pessimism as regards the economy, and fear of job losses is also coming increasingly to ...

Automakers & PHEVs: Between “Barack” and a Hard Place

by David Fessler, Advisory Panelist

During the last few years of the Bush administration, the EPA was directed to ignore California’s pleas to grant it a waiver of the Clean Air Act.

Why? The grant would effectively have permitted California to enforce stricter emission rules its legislature had enacted a number of years before.

The EPA dragged its feet because as many as 16 other states were considering legislation modeled after California’s - with one notable difference: emission rules even more stringent than California’s.

The automakers lobbied Bush administration officials to oppose California’s request. And it’s not hard to understand why: They’re struggling just to stay in business.

But now, automakers are between Barack and a hard place, as the President told the EPA to “reconsider” its Bush-era denial. If it does, car manufacturers could find themselves having to make cars that get

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